1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable electronic device with a printing mechanism, and more particularly to a portable electronic device with a printing mechanism enabling filling of the printing ink and/or disposal of the waste ink at the battery charging of a device operable with a rechargeable battery such as a portable telephone.
2. Related Background Art
For portable electronic devices such as a portable telephone or PDA, the environment is now being arranged for such devices to be used for conversational communication, schedule management, viewing of the home pages (color images) on the internet, transmission and reception of an electronic mail including characters and color images, and transmission and reception of an electrophotographic image taken with a digital camera equipped on the portable electronic device.
The Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 5-153220 discloses a technology of reading a printed telephone number and automatically making a telephone call based on thus read telephone number, and the Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 11-320977 discloses a printer capable of printing characters and symbols based on character data or voice data transmitted from a portable telephone. As represented by these examples, the portable electronic devices have the possibility of expansion in their applications and executable functions.
However, for printing the image or the like of the portable telephone, there is being currently required a cumbersome procedure of transmitting the image data to a large-scale computer of a provider by the internet, and, after returning to home, accessing the large-scale computer to which the image data have been transmitted and downloading and printing the image data in the computer at home.
On the other hand, the display unit of the portable electronic device such as portable telephone is becoming color capable, and, parallel to such trend, the opportunity of handling color images is also increasing in the portable communication apparatus such as a portable telephone such as the introduction of a model of a portable telephone equipped with a digital camera, the exchange of images with the counterpart of conversation by attaching a color image to the electronic mail, and the viewing of home pages on the internet.
The requirement for printing such color image on the spot is strong and is expected to further increase in the future, but such requirement for printing on the spot cannot be met at present, because only a relatively large apparatus is available for printing.
Even in contemplating a configuration incorporating a printing mechanism in the portable telephone, because the compactness of the portable telephone itself is essential and the bulkiness of the device by the inclusion of the printing mechanism is undesirable, it is required that the entire printing configuration including the printing mechanism is required to be compact. Consequently the ink tank, which is a constituent of the printing mechanism, has to be minimized and the printable number of sheets is therefore limited to a certain extent. It is however desirable to avoid a situation where the ink is exhausted before the desired printing is completed because of the excessively small ink tank.
The present invention, attained in consideration of the aforementioned technical drawbacks, is based on the fact that the portable electronic device usually employs a rechargeable battery as the power source and is charged at a certain timing and is featured by the fact of executing ink filling and collection of waste ink for the printing mechanism, that cannot hold a large amount of ink, of the electronic device, utilizing the timing of battery charging of such electronic device. It is also possible to match the timing of ink filling and collection of waste ink with the timing of battery charging by filling the ink in such an amount that printing can be carried out with the battery capacity of the portable electronic device, thereby avoiding an unnecessary increase in the ink capacity and an increase in the dimension of the printing mechanism.
An object of the present invention is to provide a portable communication apparatus capable of compactizing the ink reservoir therein and enabling to easily incorporate a printing mechanism in the portable communication apparatus such as a portable telephone, thereby enabling to easily and promptly printing the data stored therein.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a portable printing apparatus allowing to minimize the ink tank incorporated in the portable communication apparatus and enabling to easily and simply print the data stored in the portable communication apparatus on the spot even while it is carried.
According to the present invention, in a portable telephone incorporating a printing apparatus, ink filling and discharge of waste ink are simultaneously performed with the battery charging of the power supply, or it is performed to insert a separate ink filling tank for example into the lower part of the portable telephone for filling ink when the amount of the ink in the portable telephone is lowered and discharging the waste ink held therein, thereby minimizing the size of the ink tank of the printing apparatus incorporated in the portable telephone. It is also possible to simply print the image contained in the portable telephone, since the printing apparatus is incorporated therein.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a portable electronic device system including a portable electronic device provided with a rechargeable battery and a charging apparatus provided with a charging mechanism for charging the battery of the portable electronic device, wherein the portable electronic device incorporates an ink jet printing mechanism, and the charging apparatus includes an ink filling mechanism for filling ink to the printing mechanism of the portable electronic device and a collection mechanism for the waste ink discharged from the printing mechanism of the portable electronic device.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a portable electronic device provided with a rechargeable battery, comprising an ink jet printing mechanism including an ink jet head and a conveying mechanism for recording media, and an ink filling coupling portion and a waste ink coupling portion to be respectively connected with an ink filling mechanism and a waste ink collection mechanism provided in a charging apparatus to be mounted for battery charging.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a charging apparatus provided with a charging mechanism for charging a battery of a portable electronic device provided with a rechargeable battery, wherein the portable electronic device incorporates an ink jet printing mechanism, and the charging apparatus comprises an ink filling mechanism for filling ink to the printing mechanism and a waste ink collection mechanism for waste ink discharged from the printing mechanism of the portable electronic device.